How to Get the Most Out of the National Parks This Summer

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TerraVelo Tours, specializes in bike and hike tours with a glamping component.

By Rachel Lee Harris

May 28, 2015

Last year saw a record number of visitors to the National Park Service’s more than 400 parks, monuments, battlefields, seashores and other sites. Those numbers are expected to increase as the agency approaches its centennial on Aug. 25, 2016.

The wealth of visitors is great but spreading it around can be a challenge, said Kathy Kupper, a spokeswoman for the park service in Washington.

“The iconic parks are always jammed, but there is incredible wildlife in Theodore Roosevelt, too,” she said, referring to the national park in North Dakota. “It’s just not on people’s radar.”

The same is true for the agency’s historic and cultural sites, she said.

“There’s a lot of focus right now on finding gaps in our collective history and culture. Not to take anything away from the classics, but the parks are more than wilderness.”

Park visitors are likely to see a nominal increase in entry fees, the upside of which is enhanced programming and visitors’ centers, lodging expansion and trail restoration, especially for bike use.

Below are highlights by state.

Arizona

Petrified Forest National Park is now mapping self-guided hikes to its more off-the-beaten-path destinations leading to petroglyphs, Triassic-era conifers or fossil beds in the Red Basin, the park’s newest land acquisition. And in 2016, look for electric vehicle charging stations at the park’s north and south entrances.

California

Preseasoned rib-eye steaks delivered to your cabin door are just one perk in the new Deluxe and Dinner Date amenity packages being offered at the Manzanita Lake camping cabins in Lassen Volcanic National Park this season. Cooking supplies, pillow-top mattress covers and s’mores kits are also included.

Tioga Road, Yosemite’s main corridor, has undergone major repairs to fix pavement and signs, add parking and improve bathrooms; in March, the park reintroduced a herd of endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep to Cathedral Range; and, as part of Yosemite Theater’s new theatrical programming, John Muir, known as the father of the national parks, is being portrayed by an actor, Lee Stetson, answering questions about the park and its history.

Colorado

Wetherill Mesa, known as the quieter side of Mesa Verde National Park, will have an extended season this year (through mid-October), giving cyclists ample time to enjoy new access to the park’s six-mile Long House Loop, a paved path formerly used for tram service, as well as backcountry routes on the park’s most popular hike, which is now also open to cyclists. Plans are in the works to open an on-site bike rental operation within the year.

District of Columbia

The Rock Creek Park GPS-enabled mobile app is in the final stages of development, according to the Rock Creek Conservancy, and is likely to be ready in time to assist with the park’s 125th anniversary (can you say “quasquicentennial”?) in September, featuring trail maps and a schedule of events for what can seem like a confusing sprawl of paths winding through the nation’s capital.

Hawaii

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is helping campers take a load off at its Namakanipaio campground with a tent and supply rental option. Hawaii Volcanoes Lodge Company will set up and break down a campsite for two, including a tent, an eight-inch memory foam mattress, linens, a cooler, a lantern and chairs.

Access to the refurbished community bathrooms is included, as is the toilet paper, a true camping luxury ($40 per tent plus $15 to book the campsite).

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Petrified Forest National Park is now mapping self-guided hikes to its more off-the-beaten-path destinations.CreditNPS/Andrew Kearns

A second option is Namakanipaio’s recently refurbished one-room cabins, each of which offer the ideal survival tool for teenagers: an electrical outlet.

Illinois

In February, President Obama gave Chicago its first national park site when he designated the Pullman Historic District a national monument. The first planned industrial community in the United States and the birthplace of the first African-American labor union, the remaining Pullman Palace Car Company buildings are “an evocative testament to the evolution of American industry, the rise of unions and the labor movement, the lasting strength of good urban design and the remarkable journey of the Pullman porters toward the civil rights movement,” the presidential proclamation stated.

Louisiana

No matter what you do in New Orleans, someone will be playing jazz. So the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park is now offering weekly Jazz Pilates classes taught by Stephanie Jordan, a jazz vocalist and Pilates instructor who integrates the traditional practice with dance and the music of John Coltrane, Kidd Jordan and others.

Maine

Acadia National Park is to begin managing a new campground on Maine’s Schoodic Peninsula this fall, just east of its popular neighbor, Mount Desert Island. The site will offer almost 100 RV and tent sites, as well as new hiking and biking trails connecting to Gouldsboro Village and existing park trails leading to the peninsula’s tip. Look to book a spot (first come first served) beginning in September.

New Hampshire

Once home to the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, New Hampshire’s only national park, has one of the oldest artist-in-residence programs in the system and a significant body of work from which to choose pieces for its retrospective exhibition opening in September. Among them will be Saint-Gaudens’s famous Standing Lincoln, a 12-foot bronze likeness of the 16th president, recast from the original plasters to honor the park’s 50th anniversary.

South Dakota

The new visitor center at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site sounds more like a museum than an information desk. Interactive exhibits and films there cover the intercontinental ballistic missile system once hidden under the prairie and its role in the Cold War. New programming will begin at the facility in a lead-up to the grand opening on Sept. 26.

Tennessee

Chimney Tops, the most heavily trod trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has reopened after major maintenance to help ensure its long-term sustainability and safety. The work, done by hand with organic materials, included the installation of 367 rock steps (weighing 300 pounds each), 291 locust log steps, 700 square feet of retaining walls, 1,600 linear feet of uphill drainage ditches and 40,000 cubic feet of rock crush fill to help harden trail tread, among other improvements.

Utah

To reduce motorized traffic, Bryce Canyon National Park is building a six-mile paved bike and hike path that will lead visitors past points of interest on the canyon rim and connect to gateway communities like Bryce Canyon City and the more rugged plateaus of the nearby Dixie National Forest. The first portion is scheduled to open this fall, with the entire path expected to open by next spring.

Moab Giants, a new dinosaur exploration park, should open just in time to feed on the fans of “Jurassic World” this summer. The 40-acre grounds north of Moab, a gateway town to Utah’s Mighty Five, will focus on the tracks of area dinosaurs from the early Jurassic through the early Cretaceous periods.

Also near Moab, the new A.C.T. Campground and Learning Center, designed in part by an environmental engineer and wastewater specialist, follows the motto, “Act Responsibly, Sleep Comfortably.” Minimalism is the key at its R.V. and tent sites, cabins, clubhouse, community kitchen and learning center, where the owners organize bio-geology classes, field adventures, photography tours and writing workshops.

Virginia

Shenandoah National Park is expanding its programming for children. In addition to redesigning its Junior Ranger program, the park is to designate Blackrock Trail an official Kids in Parks Track Trail. A national program aimed at encouraging children to hike, geocache or explore nature on trails around the country, Track offers self-guided maps including historical and scientific details — in this case, about the development of the Appalachian Trail — and then has them track their progress online to win prizes.

Wyoming

Three of five lodges planned for Yellowstone’s Canyon Lodge and Cabins complex should be ready in August. The $70 million project headed by Xanterra Parks and Resorts was set in motion to replace more than 300 outdated cabins and to increase sustainability practices at the park’s largest accommodations.

And for those with an eye to history, a major renovation of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel is to restore much of its Colonial Revival style in preparation for its 125th anniversary in 2016. To be completed in June, updates extend to guest rooms as well as public spaces and add Internet service and a business center to the complex. As with most national park lodges, don’t get your hopes up for air-conditioning or televisions. There are none. (Rooms start at $160 a night.)

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page TR4 of the New York edition with the headline: National Parks Gear Up for the Crowds. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe